“The patient journey…”  We are fond of that phrase in the NHS, aren’t we?

That’s in the parallel universe of politics and pipedreams.  The reality when we become patients is often very different.  As one GP tweeted last week “Have to say being stuck in a trolley queue for over 3 hours got me thinking about patient flow”

At a practice on Wednesday a receptionist told me of the time she had a patient across the counter and had just explained they had no appointments left.  He pulled out a pink screwdriver and started waving it at her.  In that situation you would remember the colour of the screwdriver, though I was unable to see why a screwdriver would change the availability of appointments.

Wherever you enter the system, it can be deeply frustrating, when you know what you want and just can’t seem to get it.  The patient journey we all want is one that works, and if it did, the NHS would be far cheaper to run.

We have a shockingly radical thought:  “Make it easier for patients to get help”.

In general, most of us now start looking for local services online.  That means the GP practice website is the very start, and what could be more important than getting this right?

Having looked at hundreds, they fall into three main groups:

1.  Standard commercial offerings – low cost templates, everything included, ticks all the boxes.

2.  Boutique designs – beautiful graphics, videos and moving images, where what you want must be somewhere…

3.  Push-you popups – wherever you go on the site, they tell you what you want and it’s very hard to find a way around.

The problem we felt with all of them is that they don’t help the patient find and do what they want to do.

We don’t do websites, but we found someone in Tim Green at GPSurgery.net who does, and starts with patients.  He tells me that most patients click on:

– how do I get an appointment?

– repeat prescriptions

– meet the team.

Aha.  So that’s exactly what we put on the home page of our patient demo site Bramley Surgery.

Do try it, and we would love your feedback on the patient journey.  Send in a request and we might even reply (sorry, no actual medical help).

Here’s the news:  we have bundled one of Tim’s wonderful websites free with our Transform and Improve Pro packages.  You can stay with your old site, but making it easier for your patients turns out to have a beneficial side-effect.

With 57% of demand now online, they make life much easier for you too.

Regards,

Harry Longman

Delighted to share a surprise with you which I first heard on Wednesday.

Many of you will know Ben Gowland of Ockham Healthcare and his regular podcast.

This week he interviewed Dr Hugh Reeve of Nutwood Medical Practice in Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria.  It’s 25 minutes of straight-talking on why they implemented askmyGP and what happened.

Listen now to Ben’s podcast

I’ve learned a lot from it too, about the importance of continuity for GPs as well as patients.  As Hugh says, it pained him when patients had to wait days to speak to him, or were then passed around to others.  Rework was bound to follow.

I love the bit where he says it’s not a bolt on, and where he says after 6 months each GP has shaped it for themselves.  This is one of the most elderly populations in the UK, and they are now at 40% online.  Quite a story.

Harry Longman

PS Do sign up to get Ben’s regular blogs.

Patient feedback: